Claus
'Claus '(クラウス Kurausu) is a major character Mother 3. He is a boy from Tazmily Village, and the older twin brother of Lucas. Claus looks very similar to Lucas other than the different colors of his clothing and hair, though he is energetic and far more courageous than Lucas. He is last seen by the player lying motionless near the Drago Plateau, although the residents of Tazmily are never made aware of this. It is not explicitly stated that Claus is alive until the end of Chapter 8, where it is revealed he is being exploited for his ability to use the elusive PK Love by Porky Minch. Masked Man The Masked Man is a mysterious antagonist who debuts during the final scene of the fifth chapter of Mother 3. He is the only other person besides Lucas capable of removing the seven Needles. He attacks with lightning, a sword, an arm cannon and some PSI powers; he also has the ability to destroy PSI Shields and use mechanical wings to fly away. He also has a move that is able to instantly render Lucas's entire party unconscious with a lightning attack, meaning that only himself and Lucas (because of the Courage Badge that was revealed to be a Franklin Badge) remain in the battle. The attack is unavoidable. Claus works for Porky Minch, the Pig King, as what he refers to as his "adorable little monster," and never says a word in the story. Surprisingly, he is the final boss, rather than Porky Minch himself. Because of this, Porky has been the penultimate boss in both games he has appeared in. The Masked Man is in reality, Claus, who was apparently discovered near the Drago Plateau by the Pigmask Army. He was brought back to consciousness and turned into a human chimera. Although it is unknown whether or not he was dead, this is most likely true as the Magypsies sense no heart in him. During this time, King P used him as a loyal servant and gave to him near full command of the Pigmask Army. Still, during this time, Claus's sense of self and memories have been forgotten and pushed deep inside of him. At the end of the final battle with the Masked Man, after realizing his true identity and revealing himself as Claus, fires an intense bolt of lightning at Lucas, purposely reflecting it off of Lucas's Franklin Badge, causing himself mortal damage and, ultimately, killing himself. The Masked Man has three battle themes. The first music is a variation of "Strong One", entitled "Strong One (Masked Man)". The latter musics are heard during each portion of the final battle against the Masked Man, and are titled "Battle Against the Masked Man" and "It is Finished", respectively. "It is Finished" is an eerie, sad rendition of "Mother 3 Love Theme". During the moments with Hinawa speaking, the song is called "Memory of Mother". Accessing the battle using cheats In order to the battle the Masked Man under abnormal gameplay circumstances, such as in the cheat code menu of emulators such as VisualBoyAdvance, 20047EC must be entered in the address bar and one of his enemy modifier codes must be entered in the value bar. These codes vary between his two forms. These are 0D (his first appearance, fought during the game outside the Chupichupyoi Temple), BD (his second appearance, fought during the game underneath New Pork City), and BE (the unmasked form he takes during his second appearance, which is identical in every stat except IQ). While this code is active, the player must encounter an enemy. Instead of beginning a battle with this expected enemy, the battle with the Masked Man will immediately begin. Unused content Claus is the character with the most unused sprites in the game. There is an entire set of sprites for young Claus both walking and running in a bathing suit, including one where he dives into the water and resurfaces with a gasp of air. There are also several sprites for Claus pushing something, climbing, cheering, swaying from side to side, yelling, falling backward as if he was hurt, and lying on his back after the fall. This is likely due to the fact that Claus was shown to have a greater role in EarthBound 64 (a trailer of Lucas and Claus in a minecart was prominently shown), but the technological restrictions of the Game Boy Advance made this impossible to implement in Mother 3. However, his younger sprite can still be the party leader in the Debug Room and have his level increased to 99. There are also multiple unused sprites of Claus when he is older; there appears to be a sprite for him sitting, standing upright, dressed as the Masked Man and walking around, and an in-battle sprite where he still has the cannon on his right arm which can be seen using the enemy modifier code and approaching the enemy from behind. There is a notable set of Masked Man sprites where he appears to explode, then be floated up in the air and rebuilt. The entire series of sprites can be seen animated here. Trivia *An alternate costume for Lucas in Super Smash Bros. Brawl resembles Claus (except he still has Lucas's hair). Claus also appears as a sticker in the game. *Claus's name is an anagram of "Lucas." *Shigesato Itoi revealed in an interview with Mycom Inc. that Claus and his twin brother Lucas were inspired by two characters of the same name from the novel "The Notebook" (by Agota Kristof), which he described as a novel "about the bonds between twins." The novel is part of a trilogy, which also includes the books "The Proof" and "The Third Lie"-- both of which further explore the relationship between Kristof's twin characters. *The fight background of the final battle with Masked Man is very similar to the fight backgrounds of Ness's Nightmare and Evil Mani Mani. *In the commercials for EarthBound 64, Claus is depicted with brown hair rather than orange hair. *While it has been said that Claus was turned into a cyborg by the Pigmask Army, it is not said how much of him was replaced by cybernetics, aside from his right arm still having an arm cannon as seen in an unused sprite. *In the first fight against the Masked Man, even though lightning is reflected back at him, he takes no damage when the battle begins. However, when fought again as the Final Boss and lightning is reflected back at him, he takes damage as the battle begins. The reason for this is not explained. Category:Lucas Category:Mother 3 Category:People from Tazmily Village Masked Man Category:Playable party members in Mother 3 Masked Man Category:Mother 3 Characters Category:Bosses Category:Enemies with unused sprites Category:Characters with unused sprites